Table of Contents
Nine Yanas (Tib. ཐེག་པ་དགུ, tekpa gu, Wyl. theg pa dgu) or nine successive vehicles (Tib. ཐེག་པ་རིམ་པ་དགུ་, tekpa rimpa gu, Wyl. theg pa rim pa dgu) — within the Nyingma tradition, the full spectrum of spiritual paths is divided into nine yanas, a system of practice bringing together all the approaches of the Buddha’s teaching into a single comprehensive path to enlightenment.
{]] | align="center" border="1" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="1" | colspan="9" align="center" | '''The Nine Yanas''' | - | colspan="3" align="center" | [[sutrayana ]] | colspan="6" align="center" | [[tantrayana ]] | - | colspan="3" align="center" | the [[three outer yanas leading from the origin,<br/>i.e. the three yanas related to the outer vehicle of leading from the origin [of suffering] and the three pitakas of characteristics ]] | colspan="3" align="center" | the [[three yanas of vedic asceticism,<br/>i.e. the three yanas related to the inner vehicle of Vedic asceticism and the three outer classes of tantra ]] | colspan="3" align="center" | the [[three yanas of powerful transformative methods,<br/>i.e. the three yanas related to the secret vehicle of powerful transformative methods and the three inner tantras | three inner classes of tantra ]] | - | colspan="2" align="center" | [[basic vehicle ]] | colspan="1" align="center" | [[mahayana ]] | colspan="6" align="center" | [[vajrayana<ref>The vajrayana is not a separate vehicle from mahayana, but actually belongs within mahayana as a distinctive vehicle of skilful means.</ref> ]] | - | colspan="3" align="center" | path of renunciation<ref>This division into four paths is mentioned in ''The Nine Yanas, from Dzogchen & Padmasambhava'', page 23.</ref> | colspan="2" align="center" | path of purification | colspan="3" align="center" | path of transformation | colspan="1" align="center" | path of self-liberation<ref>Wyl. ''rang grol lam.</ref> | - | align="center" | 1. <br/>the [[shravaka yana <br/> ཉན་ཐོས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་ ]] | align="center" | 2. <br/>the [[pratyekabuddha yana <br/> རང་རྒྱལ་གྱི་ཐེག་པ་ ]] | align="center" | 3. <br/>the [[bodhisattva yana <br/> བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ཐེག་པ་ ]] | align="center" | 4. <br/>the yana of [[kriya tantra <br/> བྱ་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་ ]] | align="center" | 5. <br/>the yana of [[charya tantra <br/> སྤྱོད་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་ ]] | align="center" | 6. <br/>the yana of [[yoga tantra <br/> རྣལ་འབྱོར་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་ ]] | align="center" | 7. <br/>the yana of [[mahayoga <br/> རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཆེན་པོའི་ཐེག་པ་ ]] | align="center" | 8. <br/>the yana of [[anuyoga <br/> རྗེས་སུ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་ཐེག་པ་ ]] | align="center" | 9. <br/>the yana of [[atiyoga <br/> ཤིན་ཏུ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་ཐེག་པ་ ]] | - | } ==Origin== The nine yanas are referred to in the ''[[Kulayaraja Tantra (Kunje Gyalpo) and in the Düpa Do | General Sutra of the Gathering of All Intentions (Düpa Do), which is the central scripture of Anuyoga.
Subdivision According to the [[three kayas]] | [[Three Kayas]]<ref>Based on [[Jokyab Rinpoche]], in [[Padmasambhava]] & [[Jamgön Kongtrul]], ''The Light of Wisdom, Vol. 1'' (Hong Kong: Rangjung Yeshe, 1999), page 247-8.</ref>
- Dharmakaya teachings refer to the teachings of Atiyoga
- Sambhogakaya teachings refer to the teachings of the three outer yanas, as well as Mahayoga and Anuyoga
- Nirmanakaya teachings refer to the teachings of the three causal vehicles
Notes & References
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Teachings Given to the [[About Rigpa]] | [[Rigpa]] Sangha
- Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 17 September 2011
Further Reading
- Chögyam Trungpa, The Lion's Roar: An Introduction to Tantra, The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa, Volume Four (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2003).
- Dzogchen Ponlop, Wild Awakening (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2003), 'Part 3: The Dzogchen Journey'.
- Ron Garry, Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche's Heart Advice (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2005), 'Appendix 1: An Explanation of the Nine Vehicles'.
- S.G. Karmay, Origin and Early Development of the Tibetan Religious Traditions of the Great Perfection
- Jamgön Kongtrul, The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Six, Part Four: Systems of Buddhist Tantra, translated by Elio Guarisco and Ingrid McLeod (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2005), pages 306-347.
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- The Nine Yanas, from Dzogchen & Padmasambhava, republished in 2004. Available here
- Dzogchen & Padmasambhava, Rigpa Fellowship, 1989, pages 53-71.
- Thinley Norbu, The Small Golden Key (Shambhala Publications, 1999), ‘5. The Differences Between the Buddha's Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana Teachings'.
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- Masters of Meditation and Miracles, edited by Harold Talbott (Boston: Shambhala, 1999), pages 16-20.
- The Dzogchen Innermost Essence Preliminary Practice, LTWA, 1982, 'Part Three, The Nine Yanas'.